Strategy 1 - Students' Schemata Before entering our classrooms, students have so much prior knowledge that ranges from family and cultural experiences to subjects studied in past classes. It’s our job as educators to figure out ways to harness this knowledge so that students can build meaningful connections to what they’re reading on what they already understand. Too often students feel the classic texts, which language arts and English teachers turn to, are not relevant to their lives. They may memorize the material or skim the readings to pass the test, but they won’t retain the information in the long term. Teachers have to active the prior knowledge in order to help students comprehend what they’re reading so that they communicate and think on a more meaningful and deeper level. “Schemata are the reader’s concepts, beliefs, expressions, process – virtually everything from past experience – that one used in making sense of the text, the printed word evoking the reader’s associate experiences and past and potential relationships,” (Palmer & Brooks, 2004). With figurative language, so much prior knowledge comes into play. Figures of speech, such as similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, hyperboles, allusions and proverbs, are used in daily conversion and texts. However, it may be difficult for students to interpret the figurative language in a text, which can discourage young readers. In Palmer and Brooks' article “Reading until the Cows Come Home,” the issues struggling readers and ESL students have with figurative language are addressed. In the case study, Melissa, an at-risk student, loves reading and writing, but tests reveal that she had deficiency in figurative language interpretation. To help her, her teacher sets up scaffolding and develops an instruction plan that “will raise Melissa’s awareness of the appearance of figurative language in text, expand her schemata of the various forms of figurative language and equip her with instructional strategies that allow her to interpret figurative language independently,” (Palmer and Brooks, 2004). For teachers to activate prior knowledge in their classrooms, they need to help their students establish connections. Numerous tools are available, such as graphic organizers, reflection journals after reading, discussions, brainstorming, asking questions and posting a problem or scenario. For example, if I was teaching a unit on poetry and I wanted to activate my students’ prior knowledge on figurative language, I would have them print and bring in lyrics from their favorite songs. Then after we went over the terms in class, I would have them look for examples in the lyrics. This should establish an immediate connection for students between the meaning and flow of their favorite songs, figurative language and poetry. Resources:Brainstorming Prior Knowledge - Classroom Strategies TextPrior Knowledge Lesson Plans - http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/priorknowledge/pk_lessonplans.htmlActivating Prior Knowledge Video - http://www.thinkport.org/microsites/reading/video/activate.mpgPrereading Strategies - http://departments.weber.edu/teachall/reading/prereading.html
Understanding a students prior knowledge is important for teachers in order to gauge how well each student is understand and processing new material. If a student can start to pick out key phrases, bold words, dates, and captions, we can help them organize this material and make connections to their every day lives. Through the article "Unlocking Text Features for Determining Importance in Expository Text: A Strategy for Struggling Readers," Bluestein talks about looking for VIP's or very important points. Bluestein states that, "These VIP's deserve our attention, because they caputre the essence of what the text is trying to explain or enable us to learn. We can predict VIP's connect them to our background knowledge, or visualize them in our minds." By having students pick out the important information and link it to what they already know and understand, they can start to have a better grasp on new material. Students learning is like building blocks that get stacked on top of one another. Using background knowledge will allow students to pick out important points in a text and make connections to everyday life.
Using students' prior knowledge to help aid in their current understanding of new material is essential for teachers in all content areas. Additionally, teachers need to incorporate meaningful and interesting material into their lessons in order for their students to connect with pieces of literature such as classic or ancient texts. In the article, "The Literacy Needs of Adolescents in Their Own Words," Andrew was a case such as most teachers can relate. Andrew was an althlete and loved everything to do with sports. Andrew thought he was an average reader but could not remember much of what he read. He expressed his disinterest in books read in class because he felt that the students had no say in what books they could read. Furthermore, Andrew disliked class discussions solely based on the fact that the teacher would oftentimes lead and not allow students to guide the discussion into more meaningful and relatable topics. Although Andrew could not change his teachers or the teaching methods, he was able to learn useful strategies to help him remember what he reads. One of the new strategies he learned was visual organizers and sticky notes.
Before entering our classrooms, students have so much prior knowledge that ranges from family and cultural experiences to subjects studied in past classes. It’s our job as educators to figure out ways to harness this knowledge so that students can build meaningful connections to what they’re reading on what they already understand.
Too often students feel the classic texts, which language arts and English teachers turn to, are not relevant to their lives. They may memorize the material or skim the readings to pass the test, but they won’t retain the information in the long term. Teachers have to active the prior knowledge in order to help students comprehend what they’re reading so that they communicate and think on a more meaningful and deeper level. “Schemata are the reader’s concepts, beliefs, expressions, process – virtually everything from past experience – that one used in making sense of the text, the printed word evoking the reader’s associate experiences and past and potential relationships,” (Palmer & Brooks, 2004).
With figurative language, so much prior knowledge comes into play. Figures of speech, such as similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, hyperboles, allusions and proverbs, are used in daily conversion and texts. However, it may be difficult for students to interpret the figurative language in a text, which can discourage young readers. In Palmer and Brooks' article “Reading until the Cows Come Home,” the issues struggling readers and ESL students have with figurative language are addressed. In the case study, Melissa, an at-risk student, loves reading and writing, but tests reveal that she had deficiency in figurative language interpretation. To help her, her teacher sets up scaffolding and develops an instruction plan that “will raise Melissa’s awareness of the appearance of figurative language in text, expand her schemata of the various forms of figurative language and equip her with instructional strategies that allow her to interpret figurative language independently,” (Palmer and Brooks, 2004).
Resources:Brainstorming Prior Knowledge - Classroom Strategies TextPrior Knowledge Lesson Plans - http://reading.ecb.org/teacher/priorknowledge/pk_lessonplans.htmlActivating Prior Knowledge Video - http://www.thinkport.org/microsites/reading/video/activate.mpgPrereading Strategies - http://departments.weber.edu/teachall/reading/prereading.html
Understanding a students prior knowledge is important for teachers in order to gauge how well each student is understand and processing new material. If a student can start to pick out key phrases, bold words, dates, and captions, we can help them organize this material and make connections to their every day lives. Through the article "Unlocking Text Features for Determining Importance in Expository Text: A Strategy for Struggling Readers," Bluestein talks about looking for VIP's or very important points. Bluestein states that, "These VIP's deserve our attention, because they caputre the essence of what the text is trying to explain or enable us to learn. We can predict VIP's connect them to our background knowledge, or visualize them in our minds." By having students pick out the important information and link it to what they already know and understand, they can start to have a better grasp on new material. Students learning is like building blocks that get stacked on top of one another. Using background knowledge will allow students to pick out important points in a text and make connections to everyday life.
Using students' prior knowledge to help aid in their current understanding of new material is essential for teachers in all content areas. Additionally, teachers need to incorporate meaningful and interesting material into their lessons in order for their students to connect with pieces of literature such as classic or ancient texts. In the article, "The Literacy Needs of Adolescents in Their Own Words," Andrew was a case such as most teachers can relate. Andrew was an althlete and loved everything to do with sports. Andrew thought he was an average reader but could not remember much of what he read. He expressed his disinterest in books read in class because he felt that the students had no say in what books they could read. Furthermore, Andrew disliked class discussions solely based on the fact that the teacher would oftentimes lead and not allow students to guide the discussion into more meaningful and relatable topics. Although Andrew could not change his teachers or the teaching methods, he was able to learn useful strategies to help him remember what he reads. One of the new strategies he learned was visual organizers and sticky notes.
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